Egypt

Where do I start to condense 12 absolutely unforgettable days in Egypt into a single blog entry?

Although neither of us had been to ancient sites in Egypt like the Pyramids & the temples nor have we been sailing down the Nile before, all the movies & stories we've seen & heard made it all somewhat a familiar sight.

To top it all off, of the 24 in our tour group, 17 of them are friends from NZ & Dublin. Some live in the UK, some in Dublin, some even came all the way from New Zealand for this once in a lifetime experience! Having our friends there made it such an amazing holiday.

We spent only 2 days in Cairo which gave us enough time to take in the Pyramids, the Sphinx, get engaged, Egyptian Museum and the Papyrus Factory. Yes! did you read 'get engaged'? I had been planning this for some time & while we were at the Pyramids, with the help of OnTheGo (our TourPeople), I got a 4m x 2.5m banner saying "Rebecca Would you marry me" to be put up on the side of our bus, got down on 1 knee & popped the question! and She said YES!! who needs the Pyramids and all that to amaze you when something so romantic like this happens eh? ;-)



Our tour in Egypt took us all around the place on Planes, Trains & Buses. The following 1.5 weeks saw us visit ...

Temple of Abu Simble
A short flight south of Aswan took us to Abu Simble. This temple is fronted by 4 x 25m tall statues of King Ramses II. Believe me, you can't miss it. Originally carved our of the rock face, this temple worships the King & 3 other gods whose statues deep inside the temple only gets sunshine on 2 days of the year (Nov21 & Feb21) corresponding to King Ramses II's birthday and when he became King.



Temple of Philae (Temple of Love)
This temple is dedicated to the Goddess Isis and is set on an island in the Aswan High Dam. It tells the story of her & her murdered husband Osiris.



Kom Ombo Temple



Luxor Temple



Karnak Temple
This is the biggest temple that we visited and it houses the biggest obelisk in Egypt. This obelisk was built with the stones from Aswan and carried down the Nile to this site. There is also a scarab beetle statue and legends has it that if you walk around it 7 times you'll get married & 11 times and you'll get pregnant. Any takers?



Temple of Horus



Valley of the Kings
Just outside of Luxor, this place houses a huge number of tombs for the ancient Kings. They learned that the treasures the kings are burried with at the pyramids tend to get stolen by the tomb thiefs, so they built these tombs in a hidden valley where no one knows. Even until today, they are still finding more tombs in the valley!



Temple of Hatshepsut (Hotchickensoup)
This the temple of the King Hatshepsut, or should I say QUEEN. The king was actually a Queen (or HE was actually a SHE) but she got the head priest to convince the people that she was infact son of a god and therefore was worthy to rule Egypt. She did so for 20 years & did very well indeed.



Temple of King Ramses III
Here we found the deepest relief hieroglyphic carvings. They are so deep you can put your whole hand in or even stick your head into it!!



Mt. Sinai
We started climbing at around 1am so we can make it up to the top in time for the sunrise. Seeing as Bex & I were newly engaged, we even go treated to a 'honeymoon suite' up there to enjoy unblocked view of the sunrise! nice eh! For those not in the know (like me), the religious significance of Mt Sinai is its the location where Moses received the 10 commandments from god.



Dahab
Here was the place where we got to relax after touring around day after day. We had 4 days at this resort to dine, party and go snorkeling in the Red Sea (absolutely brilliant experience). Just 15mins by 4x4 Jeeps, Blue Hole boasts some stunning reefs and a sudden drop in depth to showcase the colourful sealife in the Red Sea.



Overall, Egypt wasn't what I expected... It was soooo much more & soooo much better. We absolutely fell in love with Egypt and would recommend anyone to visit. I would also want to take this opportunity to thank OnTheGo Tours for their help in organising the banner for my engagement surprise. They have been absolutely fantastic and Hani is the best tour-guide ever!!